"Love look
at the two of us, strangers in many ways ..." The Carpenters, 1970.

Don't
worry. I'm going to stop there.

But
all of us ... we could all go on naming and humming and singing
one schmaltzy love song after another.

The
English language is full of them ... as, I assume, is every
language known to the human race.

And
when we had sung them all, we 'd be left with the sense that this
"love" is all about the warm and fuzzy and sentimental feelings that
these songs are meant to evoke ...

But, really, when all of the singing
is done ... and all of the poetry has been read ... and all the fluttery hearts
stilled ... it is today's Gospel that tells us the true meaning of love.

"I
am the Good Shepherd," says Jesus.

"I
know mine, and mine know me ... and I
lay down my life for the sheep."

A
hired man will run at the first sign of danger ...

But
the good shepherd will lay down his life
for the sheep.

And this is the real
meaning of love ... the willingness to lay down one's life for another.

This
is thetrue meaning of love ...
and so, it is the Cross of Jesus that is the love's truest symbol.

The
Cross where Jesus laid down his life for sinners is the true symbol of love – not
pretty little hearts ... or cute, little kissing turtledoves ... or a fat kid with little wings and a bow and
arrow.

The
Cross is love's symbol ... and the Cross is love's measure.

Now, of course, you parents all know
that to really love your kids involves lots of sacrifices:
time,money, energy ... a lot of
"laying down your life" in many seemingly ordinary ways.

But
if the Cross is the measure of love ... and if love's truest
meaning is to lay down your life for another ... surely, even the best of parents
could always ask themselves:

Am
I really giving myself to and for my children as generously as I could?

Do
I really love them as I ought?

Do
I really lay down my life for them?

Do
they get, just for example—do they get: ... quality time? ... real attention? ... patient listening ... even at a cost to
myself?

If the Cross is the measure of love
...

If
laying down one's life for another is love's truest meaning ...

Then
spouses would know the measure of their real love for one another by the
sacrifices that they were willing to make for one another ... again:
things as ordinary as quality time ... real attention ... patient listening ...

...
giving ... as well as taking ...

...
what the other one wants ... and not just what I want ...

...
what the other one needs ... over
and above what I might want ...

If the Cross is the measure of love
...

If
laying down one's life for another is love's truest meaning ...

Then
we would know if we really love God ... if we are willing to give him things,
again as ordinary as quality time ...
real attention ... patient listening.

Is
the practical extent of our love for God ... the 46 minutes we manage to give
him on most Saturday nights (42 minutes if we're one of those who leave after
communion ...) ... or do we really give ourselves to him ... "lay down our
lives" for him in other ways ?

You and I are gathered here at this
Mass to celebrate God's love for us in Jesus Christ.

For,
as St. John tells us,God so loved the
world that he gave his only Begotten Son.

Jesus
loved the world ... and each one of us so much ... that he laid down his life
for us.

Today,
as we celebrate that divine love ... as we "commune " with that love
... as we eat and drink of that love in the Body of Christ ... let's commit
ourselves to learn to love according to the measure of the Cross.